The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Verizon cuts price and memory storage of Droid Razr, as expected

January 17, 2012 | 6:25
pm

One of my major complaints when I'm reviewing just about any top-of-the-line Android smartphone on Verizon is the price.

Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and Motorola's Droid Razr and Droid Bionic each launched at a price of $299.99 and each phone packed 32 gigabytes of storage. Verizon isn't alone in this high-end, high-price approach; AT&T and Sprint release similar handsets at similar launch prices.

My beef isn't so much that new smartphones with 32 gigabytes of storage debut at the $300 price point as much as it is that there is often no option of getting the same phone with less storage for $200 at the same time.

This approach to leave out the $200 option at launch is, of course, by design. After the hot new handset is on the market for a few weeks or months, the price, and often the storage capacity, goes down. It happened with Samsung's Nexus S, which came out before the Galaxy Nexus, and the Droid Bionic. On Tuesday, Verizon announced that it is happening with the Droid Razr too.

The Razr, a Verizon exclusive, is available with 16 gigabytes of storage at $199.99 on a two-year 4G contract. Gone is the more expensive 32-gigabyte model for $299.99. The difference between the phones, aside from price, is that the 16-gigabyte microSD card has been removed in the lower-priced version.

If you want the Razr with more than 16 gigabytes of storage, the newest version still contains a microSD card slot, which can support up to a 32-gigabyte microSD card.

In the $300 price point, the upcoming Motorola Droid Razr Maxx will replace the Droid Razr for Verizon. The Razr Maxx is essentially the same phone as the Razr, but it adds a thicker battery that Motorola promises will offer all-day battery life and the ability to handle a 21-hour phone call -- something I've never seen before in a 4G phone.